The world seemed to move around Emily, pulling her backward as realisation washed over her frozen expression. “Ara. Oh my God. I never thought—” She stole me from Mike’s arms; I went willingly, sobbing against her neck. “But of course. Of course you would’ve thought that. You don’t know about immunity. Oh, Ara, it’s okay.” She stroked my hair. “It’s okay, you can scream. You can hate us. You’re right to hate us—we let you suffer because we’re all too stupid to realise what we’ve done.”

“Where is he, Em?” I howled. “Where is he? I need to see him.”

“Okay.” She held me out by my shoulders and nodded. “Okay, you can see him. Right now. But you need to calm down first, okay? Do you think you can do that?”

I stifled my sobs, leaving nothing but a violent quiver in my chest. “Yes.”

“Okay,” she whispered, smiling at my poor composure. “We’ll go see him, then.” Emily looked over her shoulder; “Morg. Prepare David. Let him know Ara’s coming.”

“Emily?” Morgaine folded her arms. “You know David will—”

“I don’t care what David wants!” Emily said. “Ara is his wife. She’s going to see him—he’d do the same.”

“You know what—that’s true. So true it’s not even funny how well you know him, Emily.” Morgaine’s humoured grin dropped and her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Emily can read David’s feelings,” I informed.

“Really?” Morgaine said slowly, rolling her shoulders back slightly with her tone.

“What’s wrong with that?” I asked, looking between the two of them.

Morgaine took a deep breath through her nose and nodded. “It just means they have a special connection.”

“Morg?” Emily said. “Go get David ready.”

“Fine. But, Amara?” She stopped.

“What?”

“He’s—” She looked at Mike, then back at me. “He burned. You know what that means, right?”

I took a deep, carefully considered breath. “It was worse to believe he was dead. I...I mean, burned? Mutilated? I can handle that—” I looked at Mike, then Emily, “—but not dead.”

“Very well.” Morgaine left.

“Ara?” Mike looked down at his hands, clutched in front of his legs. “I’m so damn sorry, baby. I never, never intended you to be hurting so bad. It just didn’t occur to me that you weren’t in on the plan.”

“What was the plan, Mike? How did you come to the conclusion that sending David in there to die was a good idea? What was it supposed to achieve?”

“Not what you think.” Mike looked at Emily.

“Ara,” Emily started, “Morgaine mentioned a child?”

“Yeah, freaky-prophecy-child with great power.” I waved my hands around in the air.

“Well, that child must be conceived of pure blood—which is your blood, and as the prophecy states…” She looked at Mike.

“The blood of Knight.”

“Night? As in...starry night?”

“No.” Em stepped forward, standing closer to Mike. “As in...David Knight.”

“It has to be David’s?” I asked, my shoulders launching forward into my words.

Emily nodded. “Drake ordered David dead to stop that prophecy from eventuating.”

“But, he’s not dead.”

“Right, which gives us some time, Ara,” Mike said. “We lost most our knights last night, and while we might’ve taken down half the Set, if Drake were to get word that David survived, he’d send an army out for you now. As one, you mean nothing, but together, you have the only weapon that can actually stop him.”

“Whoa, whoa!” I held my hands up, taking a few steps backward. “Stop him? Stop Drake?”

“Ara, you’re a pure blood—you can create armies of vampire killers. He’s not going to let you live, he will come for you, whether you care or not,” Emily said.

“When?”

“Not right now. You’re weak, and without the possibility of a child, you’re no more a threat than a little girl with a toy gun.”

“But that will change, and it’ll change quickly,” Mike said. “David had to die to give us time—to give Drake the illusion of safety for a few more weeks until we could get you strong, trained, and on the throne—ready to fight.”

“Wha—throne?” I gaped. “Did you just say throne?”

“Yes.” Mike laughed lightly. “Baby, you’re royal blood, and by birth right, you should be on the thro—”

“Whoa.” I raised my hands again. “No more. Stop saying that. What—what throne? What is this, some kind of monarchy?”

“That’s exactly what is it.” Morgaine walked back in. “Well, of a sort—not like a human monarchy, though, and yes, you will rule the Three Worlds.”

“The Three Worlds?”

“The Vampires, Lilithians and Humans.”

“Humans? No one rules humans.” I folded my arms.

“Um, well, actually, vampires do—the humans just don’t know it. But, who do you think has been protecting their species all these centuries—stopping them from wiping each other out—leaving the vampires without food, and then, in turn, us?”

My hand flew to my head and wiped furiously at the overload of information. “This is insane.” I need to pace the floors; “So, my vampire husband, whom I watched burn after his brother threw him on the fire, is alive, and now you expect me to believe in tales of kings and queens?”

“And knights.” Mike stood taller.

“Oh, yes, knights,” I said sarcastically. “That’s right—then men who stormed that castle with swords.”

“Venom-tipped swords,” Morgaine chimed.

“This is ridiculous. Where’s David?”

“He’s in my room,” Mike said.

I pushed past him, shoving his chest, hard.

“Ara, wait, you can’t go in there alone,” he called, but his voice stayed where I left him.

Chapter 26

The tiles glided under me, moving, I was sure, because my feet weren’t. They stopped by Mike’s door and the hallway closed in around me, the walls hugging my shoulders, while the echo of a tap left dripping in the bathroom dragged me, forcefully, to the memory of my nightmare passed.